But You go to High School
by Icepen
Summary: There was his girlfriend Sally, who had a son. Paul wasn't a jerk. He was cool with that. This son had been expelled from eight schools and was considered to be a juvenile delinquent. That made him edgy, but he figured that Percy had the worst case of wrong-place-wrong-time imaginable. Paul learns the truth and he doesn't know what to feel.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson._

_A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! _

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><p>Percy had never particularly cared for teachers. Especially those of the English variety. So when he realized that his mom wanted him to meet her boyfriend who just so happened to be an English teacher, needless to say, he was less than pleased.<p>

But it turned out that Paul was a cool guy, even by Percy's standards. He let Paul stick around for his mother's sake. He gave Paul permission to propose to his mom for her sake. But he was still hesitant to tell Paul about the godly side of the family he was going to get himself into. Better to let sleeping hellhounds lay, right?

His mother, apparently, thought differently.

"Percy, honey, we have to tell him at some point. He needs to know, just in case," She said softly and urgently. Paul was going to be here any minute so that they could all go out for lunch.

"But what if that gets him attacked? I won't be here forever to keep an eye on you guys you know," He said. The grey streak in his hair and the worry dancing in his eyes made him look fifty instead of fifteen, and it broke Sally's heart to know that her little boy had come to terms with his mortality in the years he was supposed to take dumb risks because he thought he was invincible.

"Percy, what if _you_ get attacked? What if you come home hurt and I'm not there? How would Paul take care of you then? Honey, he wants to be there for you, but he can't if he doesn't know. I won't pressure you, but just think about it, okay?"

The doorbell rang, just as the two of them wrapped up their intense discussion and put on calmer masks.

"Paul!" Sally greeted smiling at her boyfriend.

"Sally," he grinned, pecking her cheek. "So are we ready to go?"

"Yep," Percy said coming out of the kitchen. He felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck, like he was being watched. His fingers subconsciously reached for Riptide in his pocket, like they did when he was expecting a fight. He shook away the thought. He could go a day without being attacked, right? (He could see Annabeth rolling her eyes at him for his naivety.)

The ride to the mall was a generally quiet one, with minimal traffic, red lights, and monsters. Percy considered that a success.

"So, Percy you never did tell me what you do in that camp over the summer," Paul said conversationally as they sat around a table at a nice diner that had a view of the Empire State building.

Percy and his mom shared panicked glances before Percy forced a smile onto his face. "We do a lot of… sports training." Percy said, trying to make himself sound convincing. "Swimming, swordplay, archery, volleyball… things like that." It wasn't a complete lie. They did teach those things, but just a little bit more intensely that your average select sports team.

"Oh, I did a little bit of fencing when I was younger. Maybe I could show you a few moves when we get back," Paul offered. Percy bit his lip hard trying not to laugh. There was no way that a middle aged English teacher could teach him to use his sword better than he already could. Even Chiron had claimed that Percy was just this side of invincible when he had Riptide in his hand.

"I don't know, Paul. I'm pretty good. I wouldn't want to hurt you," To Paul, who had never seen Percy take on a monster, it sounded a bit arrogant, but Percy decided that it was better to have people think less of you and keep them safe than to hurt the people you care about.

"Oh I really want to see what you could do now," Paul said, assuming that Percy was just pretending to be invincible, as was common in his homeroom.

"No, I'm being serious Paul. It would hurt you. I've been trained to… well never mind. But I've been trained." Paul was a bit startled by the intensity of his voice and seriousness of his gaze.

He had only seen that in his grandfather, who was a Vietnam War veteran. He began to wonder if Percy had been seen a war as well, but quickly dismissed the idea.

There was no way that he looked old enough to convince military recruiters that he was eighteen. There wasn't any possible way that that the intense, faraway look he sometimes got when he got back from his "summer camp" could be mistaken for that of an older kid. There was no way that the way his words were sometimes laced with the wisdom of the millennia could convince someone that he was old enough to fight a county's wars. Right?

Paul didn't know what to make of that kid so he made a note to ask Sally later and then tried to put it out of his mind.

"So, anyway Paul," Sally intervened, "Do you want to order soon?" Her smile had become a tad fixed.

"Of course dear," Paul agreed. He ordered a Panini, with a glass of water, while Percy ordered a cheeseburger with a coke. Sally got herself a grilled cheese with some lemonade.

They all sat in awkward silence, each of them grasping for a safe topic to discuss.

"So, we've been having really interesting weather, haven't we?" There. The weather. That was pretty safe right? Apparently it wasn't.

Percy forced a laugh that even the most socially awkward Hephaestus kid could have seen right through.

"Yes, it has been strange, hasn't it? I've wondered," Sally covered smoothly. They were hiding something, Paul decided. Something having to do with Percy's summer camp… and the weather.

Percy fidgeted with a pen for a bit, and a dark cloud of worry came over Sally. Paul got more confused. A pen shouldn't have scared his practically fearless girlfriend like that.

Percy seemed to be thinking long thee same lines when he shook his head and slipped the pen back into his pocket. Another odd thing.

"Did you hear about that freak snow storm in Houston?" Sally asked, smiling so charmingly at him that he forgot everything that he was worrying about. Paul immediately felt himself respond wittily and Sally laughed. She was such a wonderful person and she was so easy to be around.

As the adults conversed about the weather laughed at jokes that would make the Stoll brothers run away for fear of such over-used clichés, Percy's mind began to wander. The feeling that there was a threat in the vicinity was getting stronger and making it nearly impossible for him to sit still.

Percy glanced out of the widow and saw something that he had really been hoping to avoid. Seven _dracaenas _were pacing around the front entrance of the diner waiting for him to come out. He looked out of the window to the back of the diner. There were three more. Ten of them total, one of him, and no other ways out of the diner for his untrained, and less athletic mom and her schoolteacher boyfriend.

If he had been here with Annabeth or Grover or Tyson, he could have run a frontal assault without thinking twice, or they could have just climbed out of the windows and disappeared down the street. Right now, neither of those were options. He would have to single handedly fight ten snake-ladies.

"Styx!" Percy swore, getting to his feet. He could hear Annabeth telling him that he was being stupid, but he didn't have time to come up with a better plan.

"Mom, Paul, you need to get out of here. Slip out of the back entrance and don't stop or don't look back until you get home." He was dead serious now. It was scarier than Clarisse's battle cry or the Stoll brothers' identical grins in the face of monsters. It was the calm of the ocean before it unleashed the full fury of a tsunami on some unsuspecting enemy.

"Percy, what's going on?" Paul asked, but Percy ignored him.

"There are _dracaenas _at the exits_," _Percy said urgently to his mother.

"How many are there?" Sally asked, grabbing her purse and throwing down some money without bothering to count it. She hoped it as enough.

"Doesn't matter," Percy said, not wanting to scare his mother. "I can handle them. Just get out of here."

"Sally," Paul tried again.

The Jacksons were still ignoring him, acting like Armageddon was about to go down and Paul was getting nervous as Percy went deeper into battle mode.

"Honey, be safe," Sally said, her hand lingering on Percy's shoulder.

"I love you, mom. Now go." Percy commanded, and Sally grabbed Paul's wrist and dragged him to the back door and Percy uncapped Riptide, and sprinted into the street full of _dracaenas_.

"Waiting for someone?" He said, to one of the snake ladies, slicing Riptide and taking off her head and dissolving her into dust. There went the element of surprise.

He had their attention now, but he didn't want to fight somewhere so crowded. If he got stuck in the pedestrian traffic, he was dead meat.

He took off running down the street leaving a trail of destruction and nine snake ladies in his wake. He made a sharp turn into a deserted alley and stood to face them.

He hacked and slashed through their ranks, exploding three more of them into dust. Six more left.

Two snake-ladies came at him at once, one grabbing his sword arm with her clawed hands, definitely leaving a cut, and the other came at him with a net, her eyes smoldering with rage.

Percy kicked the net-bearing-monster away from him and drove his shoulder into the monster that was grabbing his arm. The cut on his arm made his hand shake but he forced himself to ignore it as he slashed at another dracaena, successfully decapitating it.

He hissed in pain as another spear grazed his stomach. He was losing more blood than he cared to lose in a fight, and he knew he was a lost cause if this battle went on for much longer.

He parried a blow and wished that Annabeth was there to watch his back. He grunted and took out two more of the monsters that were trying to kill him.

Honestly! Couldn't Kronos wait to kill him for one afternoon? Was that really too much to ask? If he ever got even a second of peace in his life, the monsters would be there to mess it up.

Vaguely wondering if he would ever get a break, he deflected a spear, trapping it between the brick wall behind him and his sword. He kicked it and it snapped before he stabbed open the _dracaena _and she turned into dust.

Two more left, but Percy felt himself get a bit lightheaded with blood loss. One of them came at his head with a spear and Percy ducked out of the way in the nick of time. He swung his sword through her knees, breaking her open like a piñata.

Last one. Percy let himself take a breather for two seconds before springing back at her. She was angry now, considering the fact that Percy singlehandedly killed nine of her sisters.

She attacked him with everything she had and he felt himself slowly getting tired. His mind swam and he felt his attacks slowing down. Her spear slipped past his defenses a couple times scratching him up pretty badly.

Percy knew that he couldn't give up just yet. He was still on his feet. His mother was waiting for him at home. There was still a war that needed winning and a Kronos that needed defeating. And Annabeth would go personally to the Underworld and lecture him for getting himself killed.

He knew what to do. Four quests and three years of training had made sure of that.

He stepped inside her blows, deflected her spear and went on the offensive, stabbing her in the chest with a practiced motion.

Hiss. And that was the end of the dracaena.

Percy recapped Riptide and slipped it back into his pocket and staggered out into the street. He hailed a taxi, ignoring the strange looks he was getting, and arrived back at his apartment.

He clutched at the gash on his stomach, trying to staunch the blood flow and he limped through the door.

"Mom?" He called. His voice was a hoarse whisper. Thankfully his mother heard him, and came rushing into the living room.

"Gods, Percy!" She exclaimed. "What do you need?" She was already holding a bag of ambrosia, nectar, and cotton. She laid him on the couch, making sure he was comfortable, giving him a bit of ambrosia.

The smaller cuts healed instantaneously, and the blood from his stomach slowed down. His hands shaking from exhaustion, Percy peeled the bloodstained shirt off of himself and got a bit of nectar from his mom.

"Percy?" Paul gasped. He had disobeyed Sally's explicit orders to stay in the back room of the house. "Oh my god, what happened? We need to call an ambulance. And the police. Who did that to you?"

"No ambulance," Percy rasped, and he poured nectar on his cut. Percy grimaced as the nectar acted as a disinfectant on his cut which began to heal automatically.

"Percy, how many were there?" Sally demanded, pouring some water on Percy's forehead to energize him again. She personally wanted him to rest, but an attack of this magnitude meant lots of IM's and paperwork.

"Ten," Percy admitted.

"Percy!" Sally scolded gently. "You told me you could handle it."

"It's no big deal, Mom," Percy said awkwardly. "They're dead, and I'm not. The situation is handled."

"Percy, you have a very loose definition of handled," Sally said, her hands running through his hair as she crouched by the sofa he was resting on. Percy offered a smile, but he was still sickly pale so the effect was anything but comforting.

Paul was shocked. Dead? Percy was lying on the couch, his various suspicious cuts healing over too fast for any human being, and they were throwing the topic death around casually. He was unnerved to say the least.

Percy tried to lighten the situation. "I'm not that easy to get rid of," he smiled tiredly, as if the joke had darker connotations.

"You have to be more careful, sweetie," Sally sighed, helping Percy up. His cut had formed fully healed scars in the past twenty minutes.

"Percy!" Paul tried again. He was determined to have answers. Cuts didn't heal that fast. Fifteen year olds weren't in touch with their own mortality. Sally never looked that scared. Things like that didn't happen. "What on earth is going on?"

Percy glanced at him mother, who nodded encouragement. He looked a bit defeated, and a lot exhausted, but he sighed and turned to Paul.

"I'll tell you. Just hold on a second. Let me get a cleaned up." Percy requested. He wasn't laughing now. It looked like whatever Percy wanted to tell Paul was weighing on his shoulders like the weight of the sky.

Moving slowly and deliberately, like every step hurt him; Percy made his way to his room. Sally stared after him, tears threatening to fall.

"Sally, is everything alright?" Paul asked gently.

She turned towards him a fire burning in her usually soft brown eyes. "Look," she began urgently. "What Percy is going to tell you is probably going to sound crazy, but I swear it's all true. Ridiculously dangerous, but it is definitely true. Try and hear him out okay?"

"I'll try. What is he going to tell me? Why is it so dangerous? And how did he get attacked today?" Paul had never been so confused in his entire life. Sally smiled weakly at him and kissed his cheek. "That's Percy's story to tell. I'll be in the kitchen if you need me. I just need a moment."

He had never been so nervous in his life, Paul reflected as he waited the ten minutes that Percy took a shower and changed out of his sweaty, bloodstained clothes.

When Percy returned, looking much better after he had cleaned himself up, Paul thought he was prepared for the worst.

"What did you want to tell me? Is it gang trouble? I know people who could help you with that." Paul said kindly, wondering what on earth could get this normally relaxed, happy go lucky kid acting nervous like the world was going to end soon.

"Gang trouble," Percy muttered, his hand messing with a beaded necklace that he always wore, looking lost in memories. "I wish it were that simple." He sighed, his fingers resting on the third bead. It looked like a maze.

If these problems made gang problems sound simple, Paul was actually afraid to hear about this.

Percy hesitated for a second and swallowed hard. The tension was so thick you could cut it with a sword.

"You might like to sit down," Percy said trying to keep his voice from shaking. There was only a slim chance Paul would believe him, and even if he did, this was shocking news.

"Do you remember when you met my Dad earlier this summer?" Percy began cautiously. Paul nodded slowly, unsure of where this was going.

"He introduced himself as Poseidon," Paul said. "He seemed a bit odd, no offence. Almost like he had seen all the ancient history he was talking about."

"I'm afraid he has seen ancient history happen. Like all of it." Percy said. "You know Greek mythology, right?" Paul nodded waiting for him to continue.

"What were the gods described as?" Percy asked.

"Immortal. Percy you don't mean that your father-"

"Yes. I do," Percy cut him off.

"But it would mean-" The poor man looked like a lost puppy.

"That I'm half god?" Percy offered.

He was trying desperately to piece together the puzzle that was Percy's life and his feelings about it.

There was his girlfriend Sally, who had a son. Paul wasn't a jerk. He was cool with that. This son had been expelled from eight schools and was considered to be a juvenile delinquent. That made him edgy, but he figured that Percy had the worst case of wrong-place-wrong-time imaginable. This presumed juvenile delinquent had gone missing for about two months after blowing up the band hall. That made him worried as he held Sally as she cried and told him not to call the police. This missing person had come back, unharmed around the time of his birthday, bringing his half-brother with him. That made Paul confused as he wondered where he had been for the past few months. This enigma then attracted an array of people (his father and another friend to be exact) who both had a thing for fire escapes and private conversations that fell silent everything he came into the room. They made Paul decide that something was definitely up.

That led up to today.

This secret keeper had ordered them out of the diner and run out onto the street clutching a pen. That made his head spin and he was definitely lost. This pen holder had then come home, half dead from blood loss, but he had eaten a brownie and poured some rubbing alcohol in his cuts and they were perfectly healed again. That had made him want to throw up and freak out and in general have a panic attack. This medical miracle had just told him that Percy's father was the god of the sea. And Paul didn't know what to feel.

On one hand he wanted to laugh it off, but there was too much evidence against that. All the strange things that had happened around the kid would be explained. On the other hand he wanted to ask a ton of questions, and interrogate the kid about this new concept, but that seemed rude.

"But you go to high school!" Paul exclaimed, and Percy did something he hadn't been doing very much of recently. He laughed.

"Well, as Annabeth would say, 'just because you're about to die is no excuse to be uneducated'" Percy said through fits of laughter.

"About to die?!" Paul exclaimed. His eyes were wide and scared. Percy looked embarrassed. He was used to throwing around the topic of death in camp where the demigods faced it every day, but in the mortal world, he forgot that not everybody was used to it.

"Yeah, umm it's no big deal Paul. Everyone at camp is trained to do this sort of thing. I mean, we're literally born to defend the world from monsters." Percy was blushing as Paul stared at him like he had grown an extra head.

"Percy you're fifteen, not fifty! You can't just go around claiming that death isn't a big deal!" Paul protested.

Percy seemed to age a little bit, worry lines forming between his eyebrows, the light in his eyes dimming. "I- I never really thought about it like that. I mean, everyone at camp- we're all demigods in training- we just kind of accept it. I mean, everyone has to die at some point right? It's scary, but I don't mind so much as long as it's for a good cause. Besides, if all the mythology is real, the monsters are real too. We have to dispel them every so often. Annabeth calls them archetypal forces. They can't be killed forever, so we always have an enemy. "

"A good cause," Paul whispered feeling like he was about to faint. Percy was handling everything matter-of-factly, which didn't help his nerves.

"Gods, I didn't mean to scare you!" Percy exclaimed at the look on the older man's face. "It really isn't that bad. It's almost fun sometimes. Like the time that I blew up the toilets and Clarisse got soaked." Percy grinned at the memory.

"Blew up the toilets?" Paul questioned. He was starting to feel like parrot, repeating phrases that Percy said, but he couldn't help it. He was shocked.

Percy ginned at him, looking proud of himself. "In all fairness, she was going to shove my head down them."

"How did you…" Paul trailed off. There was no way that anyone could set up explosives with their head halfway down a toilet.

"Oh, I control water. Son of Poseidon and all," he said this like he would say that they needed to get milk.

"Can I see?" Paul asked. The shock was beginning to wear off, only to be replaced by a burning curiosity.

"I… I guess so. I'm really sorry if you get soaked." Percy said. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment on the plumbing. He could feel the water going around the building, rushing and stopping when taps were turned on and off. Once again, he was one with the plumbing.

There was a familiar wrenching sensation on his gut as water from the kitchen sink rushed into the living room, flowing with the force of a river. Paul wound up drenched, but there was a neat dry circle around Percy.

"Percy! You'd better clean that up. " A very annoyed voice came from the kitchen.

"Sorry Mom!" He called back. He touched the carpet with his palm and everything was dry again. Paul's jaw was on his chest. There was cool. There was amazing. And then there was _this. _

"How old were you, when- when you started this half-blood business?" Paul asked.

Percy made a few executive decisions about a appropriately watered down story to tell Paul. "I was twelve," Percy said. That's when I met my first friend from camp who just so happened to be half-goat." Percy lanced into his watered down explanation, leaving out Kronos and Luke and almost all of the monsters he had fought. By the end of the story, Percy was jealous of this kid, who didn't have a prophecy of a war to worry about. Honestly, this kid had it good, with an occasional skirmish with a monster on simple adventures with his best friends.

Paul thought this kid was pretty brave though, the way his eyes had gotten wide, and his eyebrows inched up his face with every word.

"But you go to high school!" Paul said again. Was it really possible that there was a group of teenagers somewhere in the world that were protecting them where the "regular mortal" police could not? It was pretty wild.

Percy laughed again. "Yeah, so anyway, it's been nice talking to you and all. but I have to go make a couple of I'Ms to camp, so I've got to run, but my mom would probably explain more if you have questions, alright?"

Paul nodded numbly, his mind racing trying to process all this new information. His soon to be step son was half god. He was a good kid. He was responsible and mature no matter what all his teachers would say. He had a good heart. And for that, Paul knew that somehow it would be okay.

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><p><span><em><strong>Hey! So don't forget to leave a review!<strong>_


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Here is part two of this little two shot, because, hello, you can't have Percy's demigodliness without Annabeth! Hope you enjoy!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson._

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><p>Percy got up and grabbed a flashlight and prism off of a book shelf. Paul hadn't paid much attention to them before, but the intrigued him now.<p>

Paul stared as the teenager threw a gold coin into the rainbow. It didn't hit the ground on the other side. It simply disappeared and Percy muttered, "O! Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Annabeth Chase, at Camp Half Blood."

The rainbow shimmered, and Paul had to blink a couple times to make sure he was seeing things correctly. In place of the rainbow, there was an image of a pretty blonde girl holding- oh my god was that a gun? She seemed to be telling someone off.

"Connor! Travis! You're supposed to be inventorying the weapons, not practicing with them."

"Annabeth!" Percy exclaimed. Her attention snapped towards the rainbow, and she had fallen into a fighting stance almost instinctively, the gun pointed at the screen.

"Di immortales Wise Girl," Percy said laughing. "It's just me."

"_Vlacas_, Seaweed Brain. You almost gave me a heart attack," She lowered the gun and relaxed her posture.

Was all this cursing in ancient languages normal?

"Nice gun." Percy commented. "Mossberg 500?" He guessed, and Annabeth smiled at him. Paul wanted to look away and give them some privacy, but the way these two kids handled the weapons like they were no big deal was mesmerizing in the same way as a horror movie. He was so scared he wanted to run away, but couldn't force his eyes to move.

"Aw, Percy, did you actually pay attention in Malcolm's weapons class?" Annabeth said, teasing.

"You wish," Percy countered, his smile reaching his eyes for the first time that day. "It's from playing Call of Duty." He didn't even have the decency to sound a little ashamed.

Annabeth stared at him like he had gone absolutely bonkers. "The Fates know how you're still alive," she muttered.

There was a loud crash in the background followed by a long drawn out groan. The two demigods exchanged looks, like they were debating whose turn it was to take care of the situation. Annabeth seemed to lose the silent war so she turned away from the screen and snapped, "Stoll, just get out. " She sounded royally exasperated.

"Which one?" Came the cheeky reply.

"Both of you," Annabeth snapped. Two identical faces came into view, grinning like twin Cheshire cats.

"Oh hey, Perce!" One exclaimed.

"'Sup Travis, Connor," Percy said smiling at the brothers. They both looked like they needed to be kept away from caffeine and sharp objects.

"Just got back from a supply mission for Chiron," The smaller one began.

"We got to lift a few of these beauties from a gun store, just a few miles west of camp," the tall one continued gesturing to the gun in Annabeth's hands.

"You would expect a gun dealership of all places to have better security," Connor added, not to be out done.

"Seriously," Travis continued. "It took all of fifteen minutes to case the place, and three more for the actual robbery. Even the newbies could have done it."

Paul had no idea what they were talking about and decided that he didn't want to. Robbing gun dealerships seemed like a terrible idea, but Chiron, trainer of Hercules himself, had ordered it. That was definitely something. It sounded like the Camp was in even deeper trouble than just fighting monsters that were reforming.

"Beckendorf and the Hephaestus cabin are already forging Celestial bronze bullets." Connor informed the matter-of-factly.

"It's perfect for the younger Apollo kids. They can still snipe, and it's definitely easier than archery." Travis added. "Anyway, Annabeth looks like she wants to kill us with that gun, so we're going to let you two _chat_."

Connor began to laugh maniacally at the way his brother said 'chat' like talking was going to be the last thing on Percy and Annabeth's minds. Both of them turned scarlet at the insinuation.

The two brothers walked out of the screen and Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to kill those two after this is over," Percy grumbled.

"Not if I get to them first," Annabeth grumbled, matching his tone.

Wait, was that their way of- oh Jesus Christ were they flirting?

The stood there in silence, staring at each other. It was a little bit awkward, but Paul decided that this was definitely the girl who had been giving Percy 'girl problems' earlier in the summer.

"Is Chiron there?" Percy asked, breaking the tension.

"No, he's out trying to rally the Party Ponies. Mr. D's been recalled to Olympus for some emergency council meetings. I'm in charge of Camp. What's up?"

"Oh, um, there was an attack by that diner that Chris stole take-out from on the fourth."

"Mortals or Demigods?" She asked pulling a notepad out of her pocket.

"Demigod," Percy said. It was unnerving how the two of them were acting like this was a daily occurrence.

"Percy, tell me you didn't," Annabeth said giving him a glare that would send hardened killers running for their mothers. Percy barely flinched.

"What else could I do?" Percy sounded defeated, as if he had resigned himself to the fate of monster killer long ago.

Annabeth rolled her eyes heavenward and sighed. "How many were there?"

"Ten dracaenas," he admitted sheepishly. Annabeth made note of it, before glaring at Percy.

"You're insufferable." She informed him matter-of-factly, before going back to her note pad. Paul decided that insulting Percy was her way of showing concern. "Collateral damage?" She asked.

"A kid's ice cream cone and an old lady's wig," Percy offered. Annabeth wrinkled her nose at him.

"Okay, fine, none," Percy said grudgingly. "Even though that lady screamed and probably damaged my ear."

Annabeth huffed. Paul decided that Annabeth did a lot more to keep Percy alive than the boy's pride let him admit.

"Injuries?" She asked. If anyone was to guess, Annabeth sounded genuinely worried about that.

"They're fixed," He mumbled.

"Percy," she warned.

The boy in question shifted awkwardly and didn't meet her eyes, trying not to worry her. "It's no big deal," he stated.

"Percy its protocol," she snapped, but then softened just a little bit. "I don't freak out you know."

Percy huffed in defeat, knowing that there was no arguing with her now. "A couple of scratches here and there," he said, playing it down. "A kind of bad one on my arm, and a worse on my stomach, it's nothing. Really."

Annabeth pretended to look pensive for a moment. "Alright, so in normal person speak, I think that means, I almost got my arm chopped off and I'm lucky to have my intestines intact." She had taken her voice down about two octaves, making her impression of Percy sound like a mentally impaired Cyclops.

"It wasn't that bad, I mean I'm alive," He offered.

If it was even possible, Annabeth glared harder.

"Alright, alright! I'll take better care of myself," Percy conceded.

"Good. Because I swear to all things holy that if you die I will hunt you down, have Nico resurrect you and then kill you myself. Got that?" She threatened.

Percy smirked at her in what was no doubt meant to be a comforting gesture, and if Paul wasn't a teacher who dealt with teenagers and their craziness for a living, he wouldn't have noticed that Annabeth's eyes melted- like romantic oh-my-gods-I-actually-am-attracted-to-that-smirk melted.

"Yes ma'am." Percy said, pretending to snap to attention.

"Anyway, I've got to go talk to Tyson about this. I promised him I would tell him if 'monsters tried to kill me dead.' And you have some Stolls to chew out."

Wait- did Percy look almost sad about saying bye? Yep. It sure looked that way to Paul. Those two would definitely make a good couple.

Annabeth laughed just a little, like she wanted to because Percy was funny, but she shouldn't since the camp had been reduced to stealing weapons from mortals.

"Okay. Tell him 'hi' from me."

"Yeah, Wise Girl. You stay safe," Percy said. Worry darkened both the teenagers' gazes for a split second before the two of them shoved it stubbornly away.

The last Paul saw of the Iris Message was Annabeth forcing a smile and slashing her fingers through the screen.

Only later did Paul understand the magnitude of the situation. How children who were no older than his students in the sophomore class were taking care of a hard, thankless job that would literally never end for the rest of eternity. And these high school students were the only things in the world keeping them safe from threats that most people couldn't see.


End file.
